The Problem With Wings
by Stony Knight
Summary: Seth is not happy with the neglect Abel has shown in caring for his wings. So what is a sister to do in order to remedy her brother's bad habits? Read to find out!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** First off, I realize I haven't written anything in ages, and most people probably wouldn't have expected something like this as a post during my long-term hiatus. Secondly, this is supposed to be set sometime after the end of the anime, but Abel has not managed to defeat Cain as of yet.

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"Really, Abel, would it kill you to take better care of your wings?" Seth scolded her brother.

The shorter Crusnik currently stood on a chair behind where Abel sat in his 80 percent activation mode. She was carefully running a soft cloth covered in protective oils over each individual feather of her brother's tattered, black wings. The priest gave a frustrated sigh as the empress worked, sick of hearing this particular lecture for the fifth time since arriving in the New Human Empire.

"I'm surprised you can even get airborne with them in their current state, let alone fly in a straight line," Seth continued. "Honestly, I know you hate feeding on Methuselah blood, so why do you insist on stressing out your nanomachines with the extra work of constantly repairing your wings? It's bad enough that you're continually drying out your feathers what with the amount of electricity you put through them! The least you could do is oil them yourself!"

"Seth, just drop it already," Abel huffed, glancing back at his black-haired sister.

"No, not until you tell me why you're always neglecting yourself like this," the empress replied, hands on hips and a stern glare on her child-like face. "I am sick of seeing you neglect yourself. I'm sick of seeing you ashamed of what you are. And I'm definitely sick of seeing you wallow in misery over your past mistakes. What's done is done, Abel, and dwelling in the past does nothing to help you achieve your goals in the present."

"Fine," the silver-haired priest sighed and turned his head away again. "I'll try to stop my wallowing, but I still have Cain to deal with. The past can't be forgotten completely."

"I know, and I don't mean to imply that you should forget what you've done. But you do need to quit punishing yourself over it!" Seth said in a gentler voice. "Now, about these wings of yours…"

And the empress went back to work oiling the dried out feathers.

"I can't help it about my wings," Abel grimaced. "My flexibility is limited in certain ways to accommodate my bio-electrical generation. I can't reach my feathers to tend to them."

"Abel," Seth growled, "that is no excuse! What about all of your Vatican colleagues? How many of them know about your Crusnik form? It doesn't take much training to teach a Terran how to oil feathers!"

"But I couldn't possibly impose upon them with such silly little problems, Seth," Abel protested with a feeble smile. "And besides, we're constantly going out on various missions. We hardly ever see each other except in passing! It would be utterly selfish of me to steal away any of their precious little time at home with such trivial tasks as oiling my feathers."

"Abel!" Seth growled again. "If you're not going to see to this issue yourself, then I have no choice but to send a message to Cardinal Sforza myself to inform her of this very unfortunate oversight in providing for the needs of one of her most loyal subjects. I will see to this problem immediately!"

And with that said, Seth jumped down from her chair and began to stalk out the door of her brother's guest quarters. Abel sputtered for a moment before retracting his wings, pulling the Crusnik safely back into himself, and then running out the door after his shorter sibling.

"Seth, wait! No! Please don't bother the Cardinal with this!" Abel yelled as he raced down the hallway. "Seth! Where'd you go?! Come back!"

But the empress had already disappeared from sight, the only remnant of her presence the echoing of her childish giggles.

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**End A/N:** So that's it for this particular scene. If anyone wants to see a continuation of this one-shot, drop me a review with such a request. Otherwise it will stay as is.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **As per request, a continuation of my one-shot. Thanks to fountainofroses and SwiftAllen for their responses!

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Three weeks later, Abel was returning to Rome. His trip to the Empire had turned out to be fruitless in his search for his brother's current whereabouts, but that problem did not weigh as heavily on his mind as what he would be facing upon returning to the Vatican. The silver-haired priest would have forgotten all about Seth contacting Caterina over the condition of his wings if not for the bottle of oil his sister had given him just before he left along with a recipe for making more and how to apply it properly.

"You don't seem happy to be returning home, Father Nightroad," Ion commented as he came to stand at the priest's elbow. The airship they were on had just finished docking, and the pair waited by the hatch to offload.

"I'm afraid to discover just how much Seth's meddling is going to disrupt my life here," Abel sighed. "Honestly, I was doing just fine looking after myself, and now half of the AX is probably going to be babysitting me until we leave Rome again."

"Well then, we'll just have to leave again all the sooner," the Count smiled as the pair stepped off the airship.

They made their way in silence to the gates of the Vatican, Ion cloaked against the dangerous UV rays of the sun. Abel flashed his ID at the guards, for once having it handy as he wanted to report to his superior and discover just how much damage Seth's message had caused. Normally the Crusnik would try to put off the inevitable confrontation for as long as possible, but Ion's point of leaving again as soon as they could sounded more appealing to Abel at the moment.

Once inside, Ion headed off to his assigned guest rooms, leaving Abel to report to Caterina's office alone. Despite wanting to get through the impending meeting swiftly, the silver-haired priest couldn't help but to drag his feet a bit as he turned onto the hall leading to his superior's door. As he finally came to a halt in front of the wooden barrier, Abel raised a hand and knocked on it rather timidly.

"Come in," Cardinal Sforza's voice called from inside. Suddenly much more reluctant, Abel reached for the doorknob and entered the immaculate office with his head bowed miserably.

"Ah, Father Nightroad, I see you've returned from your visit to the Empire. I take it things went rather uneventfully?" Caterina's expression clearly displayed the annoyance that her pleasant words would hide.

Abel gave a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head nervously. "I take it you got my sister's message, my Lady."

"Yes, Abel, I did indeed receive the Empress's message," Caterina glared. "Over ten years, Abel! Ten years we've worked with each other, and you've never once thought to mention that you need help with maintaining your Crusnik form in any way?!"

"I didn't want to bother anyone with it," Abel mumbled, cringing away from the Cardinal's obvious displeasure with him. "You know I don't like people seeing me like that. And besides, it's a security risk to bring it out too often."

"Security risk to whom, Abel?" Caterina sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. "After your display in Londinium, it's not like your Crusnik form is much of a secret anymore. Thousands of people witnessed your battle with Cain that night. And I've had William assessing all of the damage reports you've brought back from your various missions. Since you've achieved 100 percent fusion with the Crusnik, you've actually demonstrated more control over it compared to prior to the Londinium incident."

"I still don't want to burden others with looking after me," Abel pouted. "And people are more afraid of the Crusnik now that they know about what happened in Londinium."

"Abel, you're not a burden," Caterina said as she pushed herself up from her chair and approached her friend. "After everything you've done for me and for the Vatican and for humanity, helping you to take care of your Crusnik form is the least we can do for you in return. And none of us who know you personally fear you or your Crusnik side. Now quit being a dunce, and let us care for you."

The blonde Cardinal slapped Abel lightly on the arm before pulling him into a hug, laughing at the hopeless expression that had taken over the priest's face.

"Come on, now. I want to see the current state of your wings and this special oil that Empress Augusta has sent home with you," and with that said, Caterina led the way out of her office and into the gardens. Abel followed with another sheepish smile plastered across his face, surprised that the Cardinal was taking the situation so well. He felt as though he had gotten off rather easy with her, but for some reason, Abel felt that worse things were yet to come.

"I've asked some of your fellow AX members if they would assist in caring for your wings, Abel, and many of them seemed quite eager once they heard the Empress's message," Cardinal Sforza announced once they stepped outside.

Abel looked up to see many of his colleagues gathered in the garden, including Tres, Leon, William, and Hugue. Yes, that feeling of dread was growing stronger by the second…

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**End A/N: **To be continued? It's up to you!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **So, chapter 03… who helps and who hinders?

Thanks to SwiftAllen, CashyHoray1.00, and Kseniya5511 for their reviews!

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"Empress Augusta sent a copy of the oil recipe with her message, and Father Hugue has kindly volunteered to make it for you, Abel," Caterina announced as the silver-haired priest surveyed his fellow AX members. "He's already made up a batch of it."

"I would like to compare it to what the Empress said she would send with you before we apply my oil to your feathers, though," Hugue added, "just to make sure I got the consistency correct."

"Of course," Abel gave a nervous grin as he handed over his bottle of oil to the blonde priest. While the Crusnik had complete faith in Hugue's cooking abilities, the looks on the faces of the others continued to make him anxious about the situation.

"Abel, would you mind releasing your power restrictions to eighty percent?" Caterina asked. "William and I would like to view what the Empress's work has done for your wings. And please strip first. There's no need to destroy another set of robes."

Abel blushed slightly but complied, pulling off his outer robes and cassock before moving on to his shirt. Once he was stripped to the waist, the silver-haired priest commanded his nanomachines to perform the appropriate release, and an instant later he stood before his comrades in all his bio-electrical glory, shifting uneasily from foot to foot.

Caterina gave Abel a reassuring smile, but it did little to relieve the man's nervousness. The Crusnik watched warily as Cardinal Sforza and the Professor approached. The woman's smile widened as she ran gentle fingers over the glossy black feathers of Abel's right wing.

"They certainly look a right sight better than I've ever seen them before," William commented as he too touched the thick rachis of one of the Crusnik's secondary flight feathers.

Abel couldn't restrain the warning growl that the Crusnik forced from his throat at the contact or stop the reflexive flick of his wings away from the pair. These may be his trusted friends, but their current fascination reminded him too strongly for comfort of the clinical examinations performed by the scientists who had engineered him. He had spent too many long years trying to forget those cold men and their uncaring hands. He didn't need to start associating his friends and colleagues with those scientists' heartless treatment of him.

"Abel? It's alright," Caterina said, sensing just how uncomfortable her friend was becoming. Gently, she took one of the Crusnik's clawed hands in her own and tugged him over to where Hugue was testing his oil against Seth's.

"My next batch will be better, but this stuff will definitely work for now," Hugue commented. The oil the blonde priest had made proved slightly less viscous than what Abel's sister had sent home with him, but it would do its job in protecting the Crusnik's feathers no problem.

"Now all we have to do is test out methods for the efficient application of this oil to your wings, Abel," William grinned, and the silver-haired priest felt his anxiety spike once more. The current gleam in the Professor's eyes never proved to be a good thing on any of the numerous occasions Abel had seen it in the past.

"Tres, please commence oil application method test number one," William commanded the android.

"Commencing test number one," Tres confirmed as he picked up a bucket that Abel had just now noticed.

Before the Crusnik could say anything, Gunslinger had flung the oil from the bucket in a wide arc, leaving the silver-haired priest thoroughly drenched. Abel gave a pained screech as his electrical energy suddenly discharged and backlashed against him, burning away the majority of the oil and leaving his remaining clothes in tatters. He stood there shivering for a moment before lifting his head to glare at the android and the Professor.

"Don't do that!" Abel growled.

"Oil application method number one, fail," Tres assessed. "Damage report, Father Nightroad."

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**End A/N: **Good? Review please. I have an idea for one more chapter, I think… but a little feedback may help me come up with a bit more than that.


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